Louisiana’s special session on election matters: Winners and losers 

Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a congressional redistricting plan that adds a second majority-Black district to the state’s six U.S. House seats. The biggest changes were made to the district of U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Baton Rouge who’s now vulnerable to being replaced by a Democrat.. 

New Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had conceded the GOP-dominated Louisiana Legislature would have to add a minority congressional district to comply with a federal court order. So in one sense, he was successful. 

But the governor didn’t fare as well with other items he wanted legislators to approve: they adjourned without updating state Supreme Court districts and passed a hollowed out and delayed version of closed party-only primaries bill. 

In the end, it made Landry’s first big policy push as governor a mixed bag. 

Here’s who else won and lost in the mad-dash, five-day special session: 

WINNERS: Black Voters, legislators and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund 

After two years of litigation, Louisiana’s congressional delegation will reflect its population: one-third of the state is Black and one-third of its congressional districts will be Black. 

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit to block the legislature’s 2022 map with just one majority-Black district are expected to accept the new version. Their attorneys say data indicate the new boundaries of both districts should produce candidates Black voters prefer, the redistricting objective of a majority-Black seat. 

“When you fight for progress, the arc of justice will bend in your favor and today, this is a victory for black voters in Louisiana,” Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis, D-Baton Rouge, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said after the legislature passed the map. 

With the plaintiffs’ approval, the courts are expected to allow the new map to become law. That would lead to a member of Congress from the new majority Black district being elected this fall. 

The approval of the map is another victory for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which was behind the lawsuit in Alabama that led to an additional Black seat in Congress there. 

Louisiana’s Legislative Black Caucus also came out on top, having been in the fight for additional minority representation for almost three years. The fight has gone on so long that some members are in very different places than they started. 

Sens. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, and Sam Jenkins, D-Shreveport, who both fought for the additional Black district as House members, had an opportunity to flex for their new Senate colleagues. Then-freshman Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans, is now chair of the House Democratic Caucus. He passed his first big test by keeping the caucus more or less together throughout a contentious process. 

LOSER: Garret Graves 

While no Republican has outwardly said so, Graves was clearly chosen as the sacrificial lamb, perhaps because he has ruffled some feathers with Republicans in Congress and at home. 

He was widely viewed as insufficiently supportive of Scalise’s failed bid for U.S. House speaker. Graves also endorsed Stephen Waguespack, one of Landry’s opponents in the 2023 gubernatorial election, potentially putting him crosswise with a powerful governor whose interests drove the special session. 

Giving up a safe Republican seat was necessary to draw a second majority Black district, and legislators were explicit about who they wanted to protect: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton; House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson; and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Monroe. 

The new plan creates a second majority Black congressional district that slashes across the center of the state from Caddo Parish in northwest Louisiana to East Baton Rouge Parish, where it taps into some of Graves’ home base.

Maps that plaintiffs in the 2022 lawsuit preferred quickly died during the session but would’ve allowed Graves a fighting chance at his seat. Their boundaries were substantially more compact than the plan that passed and kept more parishes and cities intact. 

But that option would have sacrificed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Monroe, the delegation’s only woman and a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. It was a choice no Republican was keen to make. 

A spokesperson for Graves has not returned a request for comment. 

WINNER AND LOSER: Jeff Landry

Louisiana’s brand-new governor got the congressional map he asked for with two majority Black districts. But he took a gamble by making closed primaries — something he never mentioned in his campaign — his first major legislative goal. 

Lawmakers agreed to a bill that creates partially closed partisan primaries for certain elections, and it won’t take effect until 2026. Landry wanted completely closed, party-only primaries in place for this year’s congressional elections and state judicial races added in 2025. 

The final version of the bill applies only to congressional, Louisiana Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education elections. Unaffiliated voters will be permitted to vote in the major party primary of their choice. 

Landry also did not get approval for the Supreme Court redistricting plan he placed on the special session’s agenda. Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said the legislature would likely take up the plan in the regular session or in a criminal justice special session Landry is expected to call in February after Mardi Gras. 

WINNER: Cameron Henry 

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, is clearly running the show at the Capitol. 

Henry, a veteran conservative lawmaker, proved he might be a Landry ally but isn’t the governor’s puppet. 

A primary point of contention that brought down the Landry-backed Louisiana Supreme Court maps was the shuffling of precincts in Livingston Parish and Jefferson Parish, the latter of which Henry represents. The Senate president pushed for that change.

The Senate also got its own way in almost everything, including a congressional map its senator sponsor drew and a closed primary bill with a litany of Senate amendments. 

LOSER: The public. Also, transparency. 

The Louisiana Legislature crammed through two major pieces of legislation in five days that will affect the way people vote. 

The public did not have access to the bills before the first day of the session, which would have given citizens an opportunity to digest the legislation and decide whether they should come to the Capitol to testify for or against legislation. And because Landry and other Republicans never mentioned closed primaries on the campaign trail, such proposals weren’t even on anyone’s radar.

On top of that, much of Louisiana was paralyzed by an unusual winter freeze through midweek, completely unable to reach Baton Rouge because of icy road conditions. 

“There’s a whole lot of transparency concerns,” said Stephen Procopio, president of the Public Affair Research Council of Louisiana. 

WINNER: Cleo Fields 

Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, might be heading to Washington, D.C., next January. 

Fields, who previously served in Congress when Louisiana briefly had two majority Black districts in the 1990s, is a rumored candidate for the new 6th Congressional District, which includes his home. 

If elected, Fields would actually be a more senior member of Congress than his fellow Louisiana Democrat, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, as Fields served four years on Capitol Hill to Carter’s two and counting.